Better the Devil you know?

Been bit of an interesting time of late, some of you may not know, I used to own/run an Italain car specialists a few years ago until the dreaded 'D' word was cast upon me.
Anyway, I've been dabbling again (just on the engine management side this time), well things were going smoothly until last monday when we doing a mapping session on the rollers with the alfa, I managed to Break a driveshaft oh well ocupational hazzard I guess says moi.
Well alsorted and off we go again yesterday and blow me If I didn't do the same again on this other side this time Oh use of fueling & ignition maps I hear you cry well no more than usual anyway :MILD:
Well today I've spent most of it fixing the mess myself, humm now I know why I gave that lark up & did someting else!!!
2 lower arms/driveshaft/top suspension mounts and yet more uprated brakes. too far too long even with a fully equiped workshop.
Take my advice, buy a simple vehicle to fix or else bite the bullet and get that nice man at the garage to do it
To think a few years back I just did it for the love of owning the bloody things, how times have changed

 

sounds painfully a bit like owning posh hifi to me wm

 

I just fitted a carbon fibre cold air intake (with K&N cone filter) to my M3. Looks the dogs and when you floor it, sounds awesome. They claim it adds about 10hp...not sure about that but it seems to have improved mid range "urge" quite a bit. Here are a couple of pics:

Before the install:


In the car:


Yesterday I was driving around like a bit of a hooligan - just couldn't get enough of that intake bellow . Nice thing aswell is that if you drive normally it hardly sounds any different to normal so it won't get tiring on long journeys.

Data - modding cars, esp. BMWs starts to get very expensive, very quickly. Makes hifi seem cheap by comparison .

Michael.

 

michael,
you'll be adding dtm exhausts and neons next
then you'll go for living the max helmet dream by chopping it all in for a wide arch nova with a 20k engine
cheers


julian

 

Surely it has to have a blue glowing cambox cover Ju, and a 'hard ride to match',

 

Tone

I realised exactly the same, except i worked on bikes and not to the same extent as you. Now i cant be arsed with it, way to much hassle. I just need the bike to run me to work and some fun, dont wanna spend all weekend fettling the thing.

 

No way guys. Only tasteful mods . Not considering an exhaust mod as it's well expensive and makes the car way too noisy for normal driving.

My current suspension probably needs replacing soon. Might consider getting something from Bilstein to improve on the standard setup but I definitely don't want any lowering going on and TBH, the M3 suspension is pretty hard enough as it is.

Would never do any mods that were "show" rather than "go"

Michael.

 

Is that strut brace original equipment?

 

Should of got you to look at my bloody GTV when I had it. Do you know the boys at Alfadelta or Rusper?

 

I seriously doubt that air box will do anything for an M3,but i bet it sounds good

Michael,have you tried going to a decent tuner who has a full laser geometry rig? paying for a decent fast road geometry set up can be a hell of a lot more cost effective than upgrading shocks,and on an M3 (is yours an E36?) you run the risk of spoiling the handling

I have alwyas stuck to turbos mostly,due to ease of tuning,Scoob,Saabs,VW's,Skodas (the 1.8T is characterless but tunes easily) but I did dabble with a 147 for a laugh,and had it tuned and even tracked it.Sadly now a bit soggy compared to a Focus though

 

Phil,
don't talk to me about GTV's, old tubs never under stood the fascination!!!, though we used to remove that awful transaxle box, fit a cossie arse end with a slipper, outboard brakes, Borq warner T5, custom prop, out with the poxy 2.5 in with a 3.7 and maybe another 12 valves, almost made it liveable!!!

 

michael,
seriously though, you want to look into nitrous oxide. as long as you don't go mad it's very reliable and controlable - there when you want it or you turn it off. no lag either. i'd guess an extra 100 bhp could be very easily and reliably added for not much (relatively speaking).
tone,
iirc yours is an oil burner - you want to try propane and nos
cheers


julian

 

M3 oil burner??!!

 

tony's alfa....
but if bmw DID do an m3 diesel i'd be impressed.
cheers


julian

 

I wouldn't perfromance diesels have a place a suppose,but not in iconic n/a cars,imho

 

Diesels are getting better - I wouldnt be surprised if we see some MENTAL diesel sports cars in the next few days. My car can take on most hot hatches and thats a diesel. Vauxhall are releasing a GSI vectra soon with a twin turbo diesel producing 220 bhp and 400 lb ft of torque. I'd imagine that will feel quick! Audi already have some big diesel engines in some of their more sporting cars. BMW and Mercedes already make some excellent diesels (in BMW's case, the 330D - although they have to do better than this, because top speed not withstanding, my car will beat it).

 

They already have the engine; it's in the 535d. Only a matter of time before it's in the new 3 series...

reg

:Quad:

 

400Lbs of torque?, a touch shy a feel , must try harder. Though drive shaft/gearbox construction plays a part at this point

 

as you found out at the start of this thread eh tone?
cheers


julian

 

BMW also have a 4.0 V8 diesel, but they've not chosen to inflict that on us. Unlike Audi's 4.0 V8 or VW's 5.0 V10...